La Habra High takes offbeat approach to 'Macbeth'

Casy Martin and Juliette Stryker rehearse for La Habra High School's upcoming production of "Macbeth." The performance will have the audience wearing masks and following the actors as the play moves.ANNA REED, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

All the campus is a stage, to paraphrase the Bard – or Mr. Will Shakes, as they call him at La Habra High School. Their current production, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” or rather, “The Scottish Play,” as superstitious theater folk have referred to it for eons, is a decidedly different interpretation. The ever-popular drama of murder and ambition has been re-imagined as a “gallery exhibit” taking place in spaces all over campus.

La Habra High theater director Brian Johnson got the inspiration for the show, which runs through Feb. 16, after seeing the off-Broadway hit “Sleep No More.” The innovative production, created by Felix Barrett of London’s Punchdrunk theater company, is based on the Shakespearean tragedy but, “They don’t do the text; it’s a dance piece,” Johnson said.

“Barrett calls it immersive theater,” he said. “They do these theater pieces; you’re free to go wherever you want. When I saw it I thought, ‘We could do something like this at La Habra.’”

Offbeat though it may be, the show is in a sense a perfect fit for the school, whose year-round motif is All Things Scottish. The buildings and corridors are named for towns and streets in Scotland; the students, who are known as Highlanders, all study “Macbeth” during their sophomore year.

“I’ve been wanting to do the play for a while, and I thought this was a great part for Casy Martin. He has such presence,” Johnson said of the senior who plays the lead, a newcomer to Shakespeare who nonetheless has appeared in virtually every show on campus since his freshman year.

Said Martin: “I like to see productions done the original way but when it was explained to me it really sparked my interest. You’re going to travel around the school and interact with the audience members; it’s going to be more in-the-round.”

Senior Juliette Stryker, who plays Lady Macbeth, was also taken by the concept. “Each new scene is a different art installment,” she said. “We wanted to expand it past the box of just the stage, and really involve the audience – get them involved in the actual plot, the action of the play, make it more interesting – not just viewing it.”

Both actors found that the unique approach to the play only added to the challenge: “Instead of portraying fully the character, you have to do more of how the character feels. Be louder, softer, gentler, or be outraged based on action,” said Martin. “It’s a cool experience, though; I think it’s a crazy show.”

Indeed, Johnson said: “The play ends in this party scene. Our hope is the audience will stay and hang out. The actors leave; there’s no bow. I’m kind of hoping the audience won’t really know what to do. “

The unusual staging, said Stryker, “helps communicate the Shakespeare better, because you’re kind of forced to be, not more literal in your acting, but it helps you get completely enveloped in your character and communicate with the audience. Since the audience is 360 degrees all around us, we can touch them and communicate one on one. It really helps build tension and make moments where we can really connect with the audience.”

“I’m a huge Shakespeare fanatic,” said Stryker. “This process has helped us both understand the plot, the language, and all the artistry that went into creating the story. Lady Macbeth is an incredibly dynamic person. She’s very charismatic and manipulative in a very dark way. But halfway through we see her change. She turns out to have a conscience and it’s eating away at her and you start to see her crumble. It’s startling to see her mask slip.”

Said Martin: “You see the power shift in the middle of the show. She’s in control and I’m wrapped around her finger and she’s telling me what to do. When I actually commit the first murder, (you see) how that starts to bring my downfall at the same time: ‘I want more …’ She starts to realize, ‘I’ve created a monster.’”

As if the nontraditional “Macbeth” were not enough of a challenge, both Martin and Stryker are in the cast of the school’s upcoming production of “West Side Story,” which is rehearsing simultaneously. The drama rehearses Monday and Wednesday; the musical (which opens in March at Fullerton’s Plummer Auditorium) on Tuesday and Thursday. In addition Martin plays varsity football, while Stryker intends to major in neuroscience.

Though the show is more or less set “right before Prohibition ends,” circa 1932, time is appropriately fluid. “We really wanted this elegance, and extravagance of the ’20s, with this harsh military background,” said Johnson. “We’re trying not to place it in one place or one time.” But while the students designing the look of the show “had a great time creating this mysterious kind of art deco,” he said, the play is ultimately the thing.

“We focus a lot on the text,” said Johnson, who is in his 10th year teaching theater at La Habra High. “I think you could leave ‘Sleep No More’ and never get the story of ‘Macbeth.’ We’re really trying to tell it as best we can. So we’re doing the text. There’s very few cuts. It’s just under two hours; there’s some overlapping, and there are some scenes not everyone will see. And maybe some of them are not your choice.”

Explained Martin, “Each person’s not going to see the same angle, the same moment. It depends on where they are in the scene, or if they’re in the scene. If they get pulled out for an interactive experience – where another scene takes place – they’ll see that scene (instead). Everyone gets their own individualized experience from what they see – that’s the point of the show.”

Casy Martin and Juliette Stryker rehearse for La Habra High School's upcoming production of "Macbeth." The performance will have the audience wearing masks and following the actors as the play moves. ANNA REED, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior Sara Bashir (far right) performs as one of the witches during a rehearsal for the upcoming production of "Macbeth" at La Habra High School. The audience will wear masks and follow the actors as the play moves. ANNA REED, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Freshmen Katherine Schloss (front) and Colette Ufholtz dance together during a rehearsal for the upcoming production of "Macbeth" at La Habra High School. The audience will wear masks and follow the actors as the play moves. ANNA REED, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior Jon Rosario, left, and senior Shane Satterfield, sitting, perform as Duncan and the Sergeant, respectively, during a rehearsal for the upcoming production of "Macbeth" at La Habra High School." The audience will wear masks and follow the actors as the play moves. ANNA REED, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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